


a rose by another name

by vangogh_hoe



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Injured Curly Shepard, Injured Ponyboy Curtis, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vangogh_hoe/pseuds/vangogh_hoe
Summary: 5 times Ponyboy takes care of Curly and one time Curly returns the favor.(CW: Blood, Depictions of Violence)
Relationships: Ponyboy Curtis/Curly Shepard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 84





	a rose by another name

1\. 

"Ponyboy!" Darry called from the living room, his voice dripping with annoyance.

Ponyboy tentatively walked out into the room but stopped in his tracks when he saw Curly Shepard on the couch, slumped over and bloody, giving the youngest Curtis a crooked smile.

"Hi'yah, Ponykid," he slurred.

"He's your mutt," Darry said walking back to his room. "You get to deal with him."

_Curly Shepard was a lot of things, but a coward was not one of them. Even if it sent him to an early grave, he would hold his ground and go down swinging._

_So, when he got jumped by a group of Socs, he didn't run. He pulled out his switchblade and smiled wickedly at them. But it was seven to one and no amount of misplaced courage could get him out of this one clean._

_He got in a few good cuts, but eventually, the blade was knocked from his hand, and that was it for Curly._

_Rings cut open his face, his head was slammed into the sidewalk, expensive boots bruised his ribs. But Curly kept getting back up, spitting sly remarks and daring them for more._

_His ears were ringing and the bitter taste of blood coated his mouth._

_At some point, he faintly heard one of the bastards mumble something and before he knew it, the group was leaving._

_"Yeah, you better run!" Curly called after them, spitting blood onto the concrete and staining it red._

_He groaned and slowly picked himself up and put his knife back in his pocket._

_His vision was blurry and the world was spinning and as much as he hated to admit it, he knew he needed help, needed somewhere safe, and he needed it now._

_So he went to the closest place he knew of—The Curtis house._

Pony sighed and walked to the bathroom, grabbing a wet cloth and some supplies. 

He sat on the coffee table and started dabbing at the cuts on Curly's face and cleaned off the drying blood. 

"Jesus Curly, you really got into it this time, huh?" 

"You should see the other guys," Curly smiled, showing off his bloodied teeth and passed out. 

Pony rolled his eyes and continued cleaning him up.

2\. 

Ponyboy sat on the porch languidly smoking a weed and watching the cars pass when one Curly Shepard pulled up in what Ponyboy assumed was a stolen ride. 

When Curly got out and rounded the hood of the car, Pony saw the bloody rags wrapped around his leg. 

"What the hell did you do now?" he asked, watching the boy limp his way up the walkway and collapse next to him on the top step. 

Curly reached out and took the cigarette right out of Ponyboys' mouth and put it in his own, taking a deep drag before calmly explaining, "Me and Tommy Parsons were messin' around with a heater and that dumbass fucking shot me. Well, it's more of a graze, but I still don't fuckin' appreciate it!" Curly flicked the ash and took another drag. "Look," his voice turning serious, "If Tim finds out about the gun, he'll have my hide, you savvy? I need to get this cleaned up. So what do you say, Ponybabe? Can you help a pal out?" 

Ponyboy huffed but agreed. "Fine. But you're stayin' out here. I'm not havin' you bleeding all over my house. You're staining the steps enough as it is."

Curly rolled his eyes as Pony went inside for supplies. "And bring some more smokes!" he called as the door swung shut. 

While he waited for Ponyboy, Curly wiggled out of his pants, leaving him in just his boxers. He'd have to clean and patch them before Tim asked too many questions. 

When Pony came back out, he was surprised to find a half-naked Curly sitting on his porch. He supposed he needed to lose the pants of he wanted to get bandaged up, but Ponyboy still couldn't help the slight blush that crept up his neck. 

He sat down next to him and assessed the damage. There was a pretty good-sized gash on his thigh that was outlined by minor burns. The bleeding has thankfully slowed down significantly by now but it was still a gnarly sight. 

He took a wet rag and cleaned the area a bit. He could feel Curly's body tense under his fingers. When he looked up, he saw the older boy struggling to light a new cigarette because his hands were shaking from the pain. 

"Here," Pony said, taking the lighter from Curly's hand and lit the smoke for him since he knew Curly was too arrogant to ask for help. 

Curly had been strangely quiet since Ponyboy had started cleaning him up and the unusual silence was really starting to unsettle him. 

"Remember the time," he said as he resumed dabbing at the injury, "you and I went down to the tracks and shot off fireworks?"

"Yeah, and you insisted on showing me the safe—and way less fun— way of shooting them off," Curly grinned. 

"And then Mr. Martinez found us and chewed us out until he was red in the face and smoke was practically coming out of his ears..." 

"...So we beat it before he decided to call the cops on us— oh, you should have seen your face, Baby Curtis, you were so scared!" Curly laughed

"Was not!" 

"Was too." 

They were both silly with laughter now. 

"And then we ended up layin' on the hood of that rusted out pickup in the lot," Pony said with an air of fondness as he recalled the memory. "We stayed out there until we couldn't feel our fingers and our lips were blue but it was like neither of us cared enough to call it a night." Pony gave a shy smile, still looking down at the wound instead of meeting Curly's eyes. 

His smile faltered as he said, "This is going smart real bad," and applied some antiseptic. 

Curly took in a sharp breath and reached out to Ponyboy. His hand grasped Pony's shoulder tightly as he tried to ground himself. 

Once the pain started to subside and he released Ponyboy's shoulder, he breathlessly said, "Yeah. I like that memory." 

"Yeah. Me too." 

Pony gently applied some antibiotic ointment before bandaging him up. Curly was lucky greasers regularly got roughed up. Otherwise, Pony probably wouldn't;t have known how to do any of this or even have the supplies readily available. 

"Thanks, Ponykid. I owe you one." Curly smiled before he walked back to his car wearing some of Ponyboy's pants, bloodied clothes in his hands, and trying to hide his limp. 

3\. 

It was Friday afternoon and Ponyboy finally had the house to himself— something that was as rare as striking gold in your own backyard. There was no school today due to teacher meetings and Sodapop and Darry were at work. Two-bit was supposed to keep an eye on him but was too busy chasing after girls to bother. Pony didn't mind one bit, though, just happy to have some peace and quiet. 

His peace and quiet lasted all of two hours. He had been sprawled out on the couch re-reading one of his favorite books when a loud knocking disrupted his focus, followed by a familiar voice calling his name. 

He sighed and put his book down on the table.

"PonyBabe!" Curly greeted him with a crushing hug as soon as he opened the door. The Shepard kid reeked of liquor causing Pony to wrinkle his nose. 

"Jesus Curly, it's not even noon!"

Curly ruffled the boy's blond hair. "Never too early for a good time," he cooed as he walked past Ponyboy and collapsed onto the couch. 

Pony glared at him as he tried to fix his hair. Greasers take a lot of pride in their hair and Ponyboy didn't like people messing it up. 

"Come sit, I have something for you."

Ponyboy sat next to him, eyebrows raised, as he waited for Curly to give him whatever it was he had brought. 

He opened his leather jacket and pulled an old flask from his inner pocket and handed it over. "See? I' never some empty-handed," Curly beamed. 

Ponyboy took the flask, hesitated, and then took a swig. He had drunk with Curly before but every time he was worried Darry would end up finding out about it. 

He took two or three gulps—just enough to get that warm feeling in his chest before giving it back to Curly. 

Curly pouted but didn't want to push so he put it back in his pocket. "So Pones, we have the whole day, where should we go?"

"You're wasted, Curly. You're not going anywhere and as for me, I'm in the middle of my book." he snatched the book off the table and opened it where he left off. 

"Oh, come on, Pony!" he whined. "Don't be so boring! If I'da known you'd be no fun, I wouldn't have come over," he said crossing his arms. 

"Well, that's too bad because you're here now and I'm not letting you do anything else stupid today. So get comfortable." 

Curly huffed in defiance and stood up to leave. He quickly found out that that was a horrible idea when his vision blurred and he lost his balance, falling back onto the couch. "You know what, I am feeling a little tired. I'm just going to take a quick lil' nap first and then we can go do something," he said because he was Curly Shepard and he could never let himself lose an argument. 

Pony just continued to read his book, trying his best to ignore the petulant greaser beside him. 

That plan was quickly ruined when a full head of hair landed on his lap. He looked over to find Curly laid out across the couch and using Pony's leg as his own personal pillow. 

Once the initial shock wore off, Ponyboy took this as a perfect opportunity to ruffle Curly's hair to get back at him for earlier. 

But as soon as he ran a hand through the dark hair, Curly mumbled "mhm.. 'like when you do that, Pones. Feels good..." 

Ponyboy froze, cheeks turning pink and heart rapidly pounding in his chest. Once he caught his breath, his lips curled into a small smile and he began running his finger through the boy's hair again and went back to reading his book. 

"I've been thinkin'," Curly slurred, face rubbing against Pony's jeans as he talked, "'bout that time with the fireworks..." 

"Yeah?"

"Yeah... Ever since the other day. Can't get it out of my head..." Curly was silent for a little bit and Ponyboy waited patiently for his to continue, still tracking his fingers through the curly hair beneath him. "I remember the way you looked... the way you watched them light up the sky and the colors bounced off your face and you... you just take my damn breath away. You always have..." 

Pony's hand stilled and his heart stopped in his chest. "What?" he asked, not knowing if he heard him wrong, but Curly was already asleep and drooling onto Ponyboy's leg. 

4\. 

Curly was downtown bumming around with some guys from his outfit when two of them, drunk off their asses, broke out in a fight. And because Tim was the leader and Tim wasn't here right now, it was up to the younger Shepard to break it up. 

He got between the two and tried to push them apart, cussing them out for being dumbasses while doing so. 

But as he held up his hand to stop Dumbass #1 from getting any closer to Dumbass #2, Dumbass #1 swung a broken bottle and cut a deep gash into Curly's hand. 

The whole gang fell silent as Culry looked down at his bloody hand. 

And that's when shit hit the fan, 

Curly knocked the bottle from Dumbass #1's hand and tackled him to the ground. Kneeling over him, Curly grabbed onto his collar, keeping his still as he delivered punch after punch until the guy was nothing but a bruised and bloodied lump. 

He then stood up and looked towards the rest of the outfit who had all sobered up quickly. "If any of ya's tries something like that again, you'll be _lucky_ to end up like this, he said, motioning to the unconscious body of Dumbass #1. 

"Fuck," he yelled as he walked away, shaking his hand out once to rid himself of some of the blood that was running down his fingertips. He didn't know where he was going, he just needed to walk somewhere and blow off some steam.

His feet eventually took him to the Curtis house. He sighed and made his way up the walkway and to the door. 

He prayed to anyone who was listening that Ponyboy opened the door instead of one of his brothers. But it was just his luck that Dallas Winston was the one on the other side of the door. 

"Shepard," Dallas spit. 

Curly stepped into the blond's space, eyes set in a cold glare. "You know what, _hood_?" Curly said in a low, threatening voice. "You're damn lucky I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment because I know Tim's till after your head after that little stunt you pulled last week..."

"Oh, I'm shaking in my boots!" Dallas mocked, causing Curly to surge forward. 

"Hey, break it up!" Pony yelled as he got between the two greasers before either one could take a swing. 

"I was just leaving anyway," Dallas growled as he shoved his way past Curly and out the door. 

Curly was fuming, but one look at Ponyboy, and all the anger melted away. A crooked grin spread across his face as pony gave him his signature concerned look. 

"Dammit Curly, your hand!"

"Oh, this ol' thing? It's nothing." 

"It doesn't look like nothing, Come here," he said and pulled him into the small bathroom. He took hold of Curly's hand and held it under the faucet, gently running it under some warm water until he could get a clear view of the cut across the palm of his hand as well as the busted knuckles.

"I think you're going to need stitches, Curls..."

"Absolutely not." 

"But it's going to take longer to heal and—"

"Well, that's just too bad because I'm not going to the hospital."

"You're so damn stubborn, you know that?"

Pony gestured for Curly to sit down on the toilet lid while he sat on the edge of the tub, taking Curly's hand back in his own. "This is going to sting," he warned before dabbing on some rubbing alcohol. 

Curly couldn't even be bothered to feel it, though. He just kept looking at Ponyboy, a frown line on his brow and concentration in his eyes as he carefully worked. 

"Don't like seein' you like this," Pony quietly admitted. 

"Maybe I just like havin' you take care of me."

There was a pause before Ponyboy said under his breath, like a secret, "maybe I like taking care of you."

Curly smiled like a little kid and before he could stop himself, he grabbed Pony's hand and brought it to his lips, planting a kiss on the boy's knuckles. 

Pony gave him a shy smile, flushing a deep red, and Curly thought it was the prettiest thing he's ever seen. 

5\. 

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the smartest idea in the world, but Curly only had one thing on his mind and that was Ponyboy. So when he went and picked a fight with a Soc at the drive-in, he wasn't mad that the ring all Soc's seem to wear these days split his lip open. He also couldn't seem to care about the fact that his little brawl started a chain reaction of Greasers and Socs breaking out in one big fight right there under the 60-foot movie screen playing West Side Story for the hundredth time since the movie came out four years ago. 

The only thing on Curly Shepard's mind tonight was Ponyboy Curtis. 

Sodapop was the one who opened the door this time and he greeted Curly with one of his famous angelic smiles (or so the girls in town called it). "Hey Curly!"

"Is Ponyboy home?"

"Sure is. He's out back," Soda said, ignoring Curly's busted up face and opening the door for him to go through the house. 

"Thanks."

When Curly came to the screen door at the back of the kitchen, he stopped in his tracks, hands hovering over the handle. 

Because there was Ponyboy, sitting on the back steps, a cigarette slowly burning between his fingers, watching the damn sunset.

The sky cast the boy in hues of gold, pink, and indigo. 

And that was it for Curly. He quickly went out the door and before Ponyboy could even turn around to greet him, Curly grabbed his face and kissed him right smack on the lips, not even stopping to think about what would happen to them if somebody were to see them. The only thing on his mind was Ponyboy. 

The kiss only lasted a split second, but it was everything. Pony sat there for a bit, too stunned to do much else. He slowly raised his fingers to his own lips and looked at Curly. 

"You got blood in my mouth, you asshole!" And they both broke out in giggles like they were little kids again. 

Ponyboy pulled the sleeve of his sweatshirt down over his hand and gently dabbed at the blood on Curly's face and Curly was smiling like he was the luckiest guy in the world. 

+1

It was Wednesday morning and Ponyboy was walking to school just like he did five days a week, every week when he started to feel someone following close behind him. 

He started to pick up the pace, but the person behind him did the same. He risked a glance over his shoulder and saw a Soc grinning right at him. 

His eyes widened and he turned to run but bumped right into another Soc. He was trapped. 

He squared his shoulders and put up a tough front, but he knew he was royally screwed. 

They wasted no time in beating the shit out of him. He tried to fight back, even managed to get in a few good swings, but then one of them went behind him and held him in a not-so-friendly bear hug, effectively trapping his arms by his sides. The other one took the opportunity to give Ponyboy hell. 

And then, all at once, as soon as it had started, it had stopped. He opened his eyes and saw Curly standing behind the guy that was hitting him and Curly had a knife pressed right up against the Soc's throat. 

"Let him go," Curly growled and pony fell to the ground, too weak to hold himself up. 

"If either of you even _thinks_ about touching him again, I'll kill you dead, believe you me." To show he wasn't bluffing he held the knife tighter, drawing blood from the asshole's neck. "Understood?"

The Socs nodded. 

"Understood?" Curly yelled.

"Ye—yes! Understood," they stuttered out. 

Curly released him and shoved him forward to his friend. "Scram!"

After they were gone, Curly rushed to Ponyboy, who had slowly made his way to his feet. 

"Come on, Baby Curtis," Curly said wrapping Ponyboys arm over his shoulder so he could support his weight for him. "Let's get you home..."

Pony weakly nodded his head against where it had lolled onto Curly's shoulder. 

Darry and Sodapop had already left for work, leaving them alone in the house. 

Curly sat Ponyboy on the couch and quickly went to the kitchen to get a towel-full of ice and then to the bathroom for a wet rag and some bandaids. 

He knelt in front of Ponyboy and gently, carefully cleaned the boy's face. He put a band-aid on the cut across his forehead and one on the cut across his cheek. 

"I should have fucking killed them. Right then and there..."

"Hey," Ponyboy cupped Curly's face and calmly said: "It's fine. I'm okay." 

"It's not okay, Pony!" 

"Yes. It is. You know why? Because you're here. You're with me. That's all I want." 

"You such a sap," Curly chuckled, the stress and anger dissipating. 

Curly climbed onto the couch and laid down, pulling Ponyboy onto his chest. The Soc must have been a south-paw since the majority of the damage was on the right side of Ponyboy's face. 

Pony nuzzled the left side of his face into the crook of Curly's face while Curly had one hand wrapped around Ponyboy's back and the other was holding the ice to the bad side of his face. 

Curly leaned forward and kissed the top of Ponyboy's head, whispering, "I'm so, absolutely fucking gone on you, Baby Curtis..."

"Well, that's good news then, because I'm gone on you too." 


End file.
